Alive
by x-Avarice-x
Summary: "Look at you pair. It's always you and her, isn't it? Long after the rest of us have gone. A boy and his box, off to see the universe." *One-shot*


Each italicised bit of dialogue belongs to the paragraph before it. Inspired by the following youtube video.

**Video****:** www . youtube . com/watch?v=xPStwHWkPvE&feature=related

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><p>Each time he strokes her console, she is gently reminded of the day she met him, drifting aimlessly in the memories of a pilot long gone. She truly was a museum piece when he was born, but the age of her designated driver never mattered in the least, nor did the gender, though she preferred his exactly as it had always been. He had rebuilt her out of bits of string, tending to her every need like a doting husband. Though he could not understand her hums and whirrs, he knew that she appreciated every repair and each gentle, loving touch. He transformed her bigger-on-the-inside shell into a home for the both of them, a home with wooden walls and a table no longer covered in dust.<p>

_"The first time you touched my console you said-"  
>"I said you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever known."<em>

As soon as they flew away together for their first adventure, she began to silently manipulate his timeline. It was never anything large or ridiculously important, only small allowances that would not change the end result. Perhaps, once, it gained him a day or two of life. Maybe, once or twice, it took away two of her own. She was already far older than he, but it did not matter. He was so special, both to her and the strays that were to come. So many of them were changed for the better because of him. She could not deprive the universe of such a gift, never mind that it extended his life more often than not.

_"Then you stole me. And I stole you."_

Always taking him where he needed to go was not quite the truth, as she well knows. His life is so long and full of variables that it is easy to take him somewhere he does not want to go, for the sake of keeping him longer. She does not have a favorite face, or at least claims not to. She loves all of his faces, as all of his faces have loved her. Each face had its own preferred desktop theme, though many kept the same one in deference to her. It took him many years to realise that she did not care what he chose, only that he was the one who chose it. As long as it was his choice, she would happily continue to spirit him across galaxies and skies of every color.

_"What makes you think I would ever give you back?"_

Stealing one another had been the best not-quite unanimous decision they had ever made. He snatched an escape from the teasing of his friends and she got the adventures she had long craved. In the end, they ended up with the one, secret thing they both needed: companionship. Travelling across the universe gave loneliness no room to roost and they relished each other's constant company. Soft hums and words of happiness filled the air that wafted through her console room, each knowing that they were not truly alone and they would never have to be again. They were simply... home.

_"Oh, my beautiful idiot. You have what you've always had: you've got me."_

Their face-to-face encounter had been so unexpected for him. She, however, had been planning it since the moment he first stepped into her console room, both excited and so very afraid. These things never went as planned and she discovered that the flesh body was uncooperative, stifling. She found herself saying incorrect words for a time, frustrated that her intentions and thoughts could not correctly be expressed to the one person who had stood by her for seven hundred years, the one person who understood her the best. Eventually, the words had come to her, unaccustomed to the ability to speak his language aloud. They had talked with mouths, an impossible feat for a living machine. Far too soon, that luxury was taken away.

_"I just wanted to say... hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you."_

He had no other way to tell her that he didn't want her to go. No longer being able to speak with his life partner, for there was no other way to describe her, was unfathomable. His hearts raced and beat against his ribs, screaming their protest. He couldn't lose her as soon as he got her. It was almost too much to bear. He watched her flesh body slowly die, silently thankful that Rory was so compassionate. He wanted nothing more than for her to be home again, yet he fought himself on the grounds that she should be able to stand at his side. She was, he knew, the greatest companion he had ever had.

_"I'll always be here."_

She managed to hold on just long enough to say a proper goodbye. She had wanted to say so many things to him, but the time constraints on her flesh body had prevented most conversation. She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated the stories he told her of his adventures, the constant maintenance, and the love he put into everything he did. Instead, she had done the one thing that she had wanted the most: she had run with her Doctor. They had run together just as he always did with his strays and she knew he only ran with the best. In the end, that's all she could have asked for.

_"I love you."_


End file.
